SAG Awards go to The Trial of the Chicago 7, Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis

Los Angeles

AARON Sorkin's courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 finally notched a significant award-season victory on Sunday, winning the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for best cast in a motion picture.

Over the past decade, five of the films that won SAG's top prize went on to take the best-picture Oscar, including last year, when a big win for Parasite gave it a gust of momentum going into the Academy Awards.

After The Trial of the Chicago 7 lost the Golden Globe for best drama to Nomadland and the Writers Guild Award for original screenplay to Promising Young Woman, the film's triumph at the SAG Awards could give it a similar jolt.

Two men who have been sweeping the season continued to steamroll at SAG: The late Chadwick Boseman won the best-actor award for his work in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, while Judas and the Black Messiah star Daniel Kaluuya won the supporting-actor trophy.

The actress and supporting-actress races have been more suspenseful this season, and SAG delivered two notable victories in the form of best-actress winner Viola Davis for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Minari scene-stealer Yuh-Jung Youn, who won the supporting-actress award.

Last year, all four SAG acting winners went on to repeat at the Oscars. If that happens this year, it will be the first time that all the acting Oscars were won by people of colour.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom would also become the first film since As Good as It Gets (1997) to win both the best-actor and best-actress Oscars - though unlike that film, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom missed out on a best-picture nomination. (As Good as It Gets lost that prize to Titanic.)

In the television categories, Schitt's Creek and The Crown continued their award-season dominance, winning the ensemble awards for comedy and drama categories as well as best-actress awards for Catherine O'Hara and Gillian Anderson respectively. NYTIMES